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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Any Excuse for Shiplap

Is there any DIYer out there who watches Fixer Upper who hasn't been dying to try out a shiplap project?

Of course I knew a house built in 1974 wouldn't just happen to have the perfect shiplap safely hidden away behind its walls, waiting for me to come looking for it. And I really had no idea where a good place for it would be in my house. But that didn't keep me from wanting to find a place... until I found the perfect project...

If you've read my previous posts, you'll see it went from a necessary kitchen tile re-do to expanding our laundry room to bringing this 1970s half bath into the 21st century.

Demo!

Removing the medicine cabinets, soffit, and the moldy drywall (from a leaking washing machine behind the wall) was the first step.

Wall paper and medicine cabinets gone! Whew!

Checking to see if we can get rid of this, move the light, and open up the space.

Figuring out what to do next...

Moving the Light

It was about this point in the project that I decided I needed to have shiplap on this wall. The nice thing was that meant we could remove the existing drywall (that made it even underneath since some was already missing). If all of the drywall had been there to begin with, we probably wouldn't have removed it. This also made it easier to move where the light would be.

Because we needed the light, my husband went ahead and installed the new fixture. Isn't it adorable? I love it. It kind of has a bit of a vintage feel to it. Anyway, installing it when we did ended up being kind of a pain with installing the shiplap and then staining/painting it. Oh well.

Drywall & Texture

When replacing the drywall and doing the texture in the laundry room, we also did the half bath. Because of the bulkhead that was removed, we needed to repair some of the drywall on the side walls.

Leaving a hidden note. Maybe someday someone will see it. :)

And because the walls had been smooth with wallpaper, we needed to texture the entire room (except where the shiplap would be.

Tip: Use a rubber mallet to tap the boards together so you don't dent the soft pine. As you can see from the picture, he started from the bottom and worked up.

Although I thought we would finish off the sides of the shiplap with some kind of trim piece, we ended up not doing that. I didn't mind the small gaps--it looks more rustic. One thing my husband had to be careful of though was measuring each piece every time because apparently the walls weren't square.

At the top, he added a trim piece on top--almost like a crown, though it was flat--to finish it off. Another full tongue in groove board wouldn't have fit, and couldn't have been tapped in anyways.

To Paint or to Stain?

The hardest part of the project for me was figuring out whether to paint or stain the shiplap--and what color.

I had to do something, of course, because with the sink right there, the wood would need protected from the water. I wasn't wanting to change the countertop and cabinet color as a cost-cutting measure, so I had to find something that was neither white nor ivory. I didn't want it to clash and I didn't want it to blend in.

I thought about staining the wood darker, but I was afraid it would be too dark, especially with the new tile. And I wanted to use a different mirror, which just so happened to have a fairly dark frame around it.

So I went with something I thought was cool, but will probably feel dated pretty quickly. I decided I could live with that. If I need to paint it later, I can always do that.

So I decided on a beachy, weathered look. To achieve this, I pulled all of the blue, green, gray, and white paint I had already around the house to see what I could come up with.

I brought in my inspiration piece (the egg candles) and the leftover pieces of shiplap to try out my dry-brush technique.

Then I made myself a little plan...

And then I went for it.

I felt like my first shot at it was a little too dark, so since then, I dry brushed a lighter shade over top (I think it might have been the wall color), and then I went over it with the sander.

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About Me

When Maria Hoagland is not working at her computer, she can be found combing used furniture stores, remodeling houses with her husband, or sitting on the sideline of a son's soccer game. She loves crunching leaves in the fall, stealing cookie dough from the mixing bowl, and listening to musicals on her iPod.
Maria Hoagland's published works include The {Re}Model Marriage, Home for the Holidays, Nourish & Strengthen, Family Size, and Whitney Award finalist, Still Time.

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